


It'll Be Easy

by Guardian_of_Hope



Series: Not My Sins [2]
Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Gen, Tony is a dad, alternate Iron Man, alternatue universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-05 04:36:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/718956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_of_Hope/pseuds/Guardian_of_Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark thinks moving the Avengers into the Tower will be easy. Steven has his doubts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It'll Be Easy

Steven glanced up from the catalogue of gym equipment as the penthouse elevator opened, then looked back down at his catalogue, “Steven, Robin,” Tony called, “where are you?”

“Living room,” Robin called back, “Puck’s still ignoring you though.”

“Still?” Tony asked as he walked in.

“You invited the Avengers to stay at the Tower,” Robin said, “Puck’s been having conniptions about what that’s going to do to security around here.”

“They’re superheroes; wouldn’t that mean that security is going to be better?” Tony asked.

Steven snorted.

“He’s also concerned about how long it will take them to figure out that he’s Iron Man,” Robin added.

“Don’t worry so much,” Tony told them. “The Avengers coming to the Tower is going to be fine. They’ll be here in ten minutes, and I expect you two to play nice.”

“When am I not nice?” Robin asked.

“I heard about your antics back at Cambridge,” Tony replied, “Steven, I want you in the lobby with me. Now.”

Steven sighed, put the magazine, and stood up, “Yes, Doctor Stark.”

Tony sighed, “Steve, I’m sorry I didn’t ask you. Fury sprung it on me and I couldn’t find a way to say no without sounding rude; especially since I was already inviting Bruce to become a part of SI’s R and D department here at the Tower.”

Steven tried a little smile, “I’ll adjust I’m sure. I just don’t want them to find out that I’m Iron Man just yet.”

“Why not tell them?” Robin asked.

“Because they’re complete strangers and I would prefer not to have to hand over that kind of knowledge until I get to know them a bit better. Because my contract guarantees my identity remains private. Because it’s going to be hard to pretend Iron Man doesn’t know things that happened when I’m Steven Goodfellow-Stark, Head of Stark Tower Security, and vice versa? It’s going to be difficult.” Steven replied.

“Maybe when you get to know them better, you can let them in on the secret,” Tony suggested, “and you know Robin and I will help you out there.”

“Yes, I do,” Steven agreed.

“Now give me a hug,” Tony said, “and let’s go down there.”

Steven hugged his dad, relishing the feeling after having gone so long without having a dad too hug. “Sir, your guests are in the lobby,” Jarvis announced.

“Let’s go then,” Tony said.

“Can I come?” Robin asked.

“Sure,” Tony said, “you live here too.”

“And since we’re using the communal spaces right now,” Steven continued as they headed into the elevator.

“Do you have to bring that up all the time?” Robin asked.

“You blew up the kitchen and destroyed half the living room,” Steven replied, “trying to make lasagna. I am never going to let you live that down because I just don’t see how you managed to pull it off!”

“Boys,” Tony said, “the kitchen will be fixed soon enough.”

The elevator opened on the Lobby, where the Avengers were squaring off against the lobby security, and Steven noted, the roaming guard for this shift, Avery. “Stand down, Avery,” he ordered as he stepped off the elevator.

Avery, eyes fixed on the group, shifted, hand dropping away from the gun at his side, “Yes sir.”

“Steve,” Tony called, walking through the lobby guards, “Sorry about the security, they’re just doing their job and all that.”

“If you had informed me earlier that they were coming this wouldn’t have happened, Doctor Stark,” Steven said pointedly, he turned to Harris, “Get visitor badges for our guests. I’ll be down for briefing in an hour and explain fully.”

“Yes sir,” Harris replied and turned away.

McKennon and Johnson stepped back to flank Steven, their best emotionless masks in place.

“Steven Goodfellow,” Tony was saying, “the head of security for Stark Tower. Puck, these are the Avengers, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and Bruce Banner. Thor isn’t back yet, though.”

Steven nodded to the group, “Welcome to Stark Tower. After you get settled in, I’ll be happy to discuss our security measures with you.”

“And this is Doctor Robin Goodfellow,” Tony continued, “He’s the Assistant Director of R&D for Stark Enterprises. Steven and Robin live here at the Tower for security reasons although they are currently the only Stark employees who do so. If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you up to the living spaces.”

“Badges,” Harris said and passed them over to Steven.

“First, these are guest badges,” Steven said and handed them out, “They allow you access to certain levels of the Tower. Right now, that doesn’t actually include the residential floors, however when we enter the private elevator, if you would each swipe your card in the lock we’ll establish a temporary override that will allow you onto those floors until we can get those pass cards made. Please carry these cards at all time. I realize that you are all easily recognizable, but I would prefer not to have an incident because of an honest mistake before I can brief everyone.”

“We can do that,” Steve Rogers replied with a slight nod.

“Ok,” Tony said, “let’s go then.”

They entered the private elevator and the cards were scanned. “Now,” Tony said, “some of the residential floors aren’t entirely completed, what with Fury changing the time line on me, but you each have a floor for your private pursuits, and then there are three communal floors which Puck, Robin and I also have the use of. As so much of the work is ongoing, you will all be able to make suggestions and changes if you need to. Included in the communal floors are the gym, communal kitchen and dining room, a conference room for team meetings, a theatre for movie nights, and a game room. There is a gun range in the basement, and large arsenal, but each of your floors, Agents Romanoff and Barton, have a smaller arsenal that you’ll be able to place biometric locks on.”

“A word of warning,” Steven added, “Robin and I are currently using the communal spaces full time because there was damage to our kitchen and living room. I apologize for that, but the incident precipitating the necessity was not my fault.”

“It was mine,” Robin admitted.

“We both have some things stored in the refrigerator,” Steven continued, “they are all labeled either SG or RG, and if that fails all of the containers with red lids are mine and blue lids are Robin’s items. There are also purple, white, green, and clear storage containers in the cabinets if you would each prefer to choose a color for your own use.”

“No color for Stark then?” Clint asked.

“Doctor Stark,” Steven said, “is not allowed to in the kitchen except to make sandwiches or heat up leftovers, and even then I’d prefer if he were closely supervised. Miss. Potts and I coordinate to ensure that his meals are prepared and stored in the workshop and his penthouse. He should have no reason to graze from the communal kitchen for leftovers unannounced. Robin and I have also taken two shelves in the kitchen pantry for our use; again they are clearly labeled as our shelves.”

“Your floors will have kitchens of their own, for private meals,” Tony continued, “however the construction has been much slowed since most of the workers are taking part in the cleanup efforts, however, they do have a crew in the Tower every day to get the living aspect of the floors complete.”

“At the moment,” Steven said, “they’re finishing the repairs to our kitchen and living room, since it’s almost done. They’ll be another two days to finish the cabinet and appliance installations. Next, unless there is an objection, they’ll move to finish Captain Rogers’s floor. You have a bathroom and bedroom already finished and sparsely furnished however there is a designer coming in to assist you in selecting your other furnishings.”

“Do you know everything going on in the Tower?” Natasha asked him.

“I’m head of Stark Tower’s security,” Steven replied as the elevators opened, “given that we have expanded residential quarters here, their status is part of my job as well.”

“What he means,” Robin said as they entered the communal floor, “is that Puck is such a controlling bastard when it comes to security that anything he considers important becomes part of his job description.”

“I take my job seriously,” Steven replied pointedly. He glanced at his watch, “On that note, you will have to excuse me. I need to brief next shift on the changes. I’ll be back at fifteen-thirty to explain Stark Tower security to all of you.” He turned on his heel and headed for the elevator, resisting the urge to stay and watch his brother’s back in the face of this group of very dangerous, very deadly strangers that had invaded his home ground.

He stepped into the elevator and let the doors slid shut, “Jarvis,” he said, hitting the button for the basement.

“Yes sir?” Jarvis asked.

“Please actively monitor Robin until I ask otherwise, especially as long as he’s in the presence of any of the Avengers. Alert me if intervention is necessary, but otherwise be discrete and save all records to the private security storage banks.” Steven crossed his arms.

“You do not trust the Avengers, sir?” Jarvis asked.

“I don’t know enough about them,” Steven replied, “they set off every one of my danger alerts and now they’re here, in the _Tower._ I’m sure that I’ll trust them when I know them better but for right now, I just don’t.”

“Very well,” Jarvis said.

“Is Hogan in the building?” Steven asked as the doors slid open.

“He is in the briefing room with the three to nine shifts, waiting on you,” Jarvis replied.

“Thank you,” Steven said as he nodded to the two guards at the desk, “Guiles, Brant. Anything I need to be aware of?”

“No sir,” Guiles replied, glancing at Brant.

“Kat came by, brought the new apps from the VA. I put them on your desk,” Brant offered.

“Great,” Steven said, “Listen; we’re apparently housing the Avengers for a while. I’ll send you down relevant information about them, but just because they saved New York does not get them automatic passage past these doors, all right? Unless Doctor Stark is personally escorting them down, of course.”

“Of course,” the pair said.

Steven swiped his badge and headed back to brief the incoming shift on the changes to the Tower.

He was late getting back up to the communal living room, but he brought his shift leaders with him which made up for it. The Avengers were in the living room, talking to each other, “I apologize for the delay,” Steven said as he came in. “I was waiting for someone to come in down stairs.”

“That’s fine,” Captain Rogers replied, the other three nodded as they watched Steven’s people move around.

“These are some people you need to know, living here in the tower,” Steven said. “This is Marta Dayarson, my second. Dayarson supervises security from seven pm until seven am. If something happens, she’ll be the one passing on the news. These four are my current shift leaders, Hank Foster, who just came on duty, Jamie Rule who has the midnight shift, Petra Coombs who has mornings, and Van Greer who has the afternoons. There are three other shift leaders, but two of them are in hospital and Tobler is in Virginia. Foster, Rule, Coombs and Greer oversee the security teams in Stark Tower such as the three you met in the lobby. At the moment, while we are running strict tech security, our man power is down, so some of the security we normally offer is compromise. The last of our group is Michael Boxer.” He smiled a little at the man in the wheelchair. “Michael is in charge of our roving security team. We have a half dozen pairs who move around the tower as needed, while they know to respect the sanctity of your private spaces, they might come here to the communal floors as part of their walkabouts. Michael, want to explain the Rovers?”

“Sure,” Michael said, “I’m Michael Boxer, former Captain in the US Army, I was a sniper to be precise. The guys under my command here at Stark Tower work in pairs, but you’ll only ever see one of them. That is because the second member of the set is down in the Video Security Room or VSR. The VSR Tech watches the videos for things that are unusual and report them to their partner who investigates the unusual happening. The Major here has earned a lot of loyalty from us in the Rover section because he chose to employ several veterans like myself for the VSR tech positions. There’s nothing wrong with our brains or our eyes, although a lot of people see our chairs, our prosthetics, or our twitches and think otherwise.” He glanced at Steven, “Mind if I head back down?”

“Go ahead,” Steven said, “thanks for coming up, all of you.”

Once the group had left, Steven regarded the Avengers, “I’m going to assume Doctor Stark introduced you to Jarvis?”

“He did,” Captain Rogers said with a nod.

“Why do you call him Doctor Stark?” Barton asked suddenly, “I’m sorry, I just noticed that, and well, why?”

Steven frowned, “You call Doctor Banner by his title, why wouldn’t you call Doctor Stark by his title? I imagine he might at some point have invited you to call him Tony, but it doesn’t make his title any less respectable than Doctor Banner.”

“I guess I didn’t know that Stark had a doctorate,” Barton said, shifting on the couch nervously.

“Point in fact, he has three,” Steven replied. “As does Doctor Goodfellow.”

“If you want to get technical, Puck’s got one too,” Tony said as he swept in the room, “Are you done lecturing yet? Whatever you’ve got going in the crock pot smells divine.”

“I’m almost done,” Steven replied calmly, “I was just going to ask if you explained how the uplinks work in the residential floors?”

“No, I didn’t,” Tony replied.

Steven sighed softly, “Jarvis has an audio/visual interface in every room of your residences. However, they are passive. You activate them by saying ‘Jarvis’. You might want to practice how loud you have to speak on your own time. The feeds shut off after you’ve finished interacting with Jarvis unless you specifically request the recording stays on. Or if you’re in the presence of someone who has asked to be monitored by the AVI. There are also medical monitoring tech in the residences, you can check the specifics in the security folder, but heart rate, body temp, and respiration are all monitored twenty-four seven and cannot be turned off. If you’re bringing in a guest, you need to report their presence before or upon arrival. Yes, even Doctor Stark, Robin and myself are subject to that particular rule. The public rooms, such as the kitchen, living room and residential gym are open monitored at all times. The recordings for everything above the 70th floor, however, are stored on a single, independent server located in the VSR. Most of the cameras up here are discrete; however, you’ll also notice some that appear lower tech than you’d expect. These are the cameras used specifically by the VSR techs for their security scanning and are in part a decoy if someone were to actually manage to make it to the residential floors. The server for the residential cameras other than the VSR cameras can only be accessed by myself as head of Stark Tower security, Miss Virginia Potts as CEO of Stark Industries, Doctor Stark as the programmer for the AVI feeds, and Doctor Goodfellow for his work with the medical monitoring tech. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me later. For now, as Doctor Stark has indicated, there is a beef stew in the slow cooker in the kitchen, along with homemade bread and the makings for a garden salad. You are all welcome to enjoy yourself, I believe I made enough for everyone.”

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Robin asked as he leaned in from the kitchen.

Steven shook his head, “Marta doesn’t come on until nineteen hundred. I’m going to be down stairs for now.” He paused, “And Doctor Stark, we heard from Iron Man, he thanks you for the concern towards his mother and hopes to back in the morning. If there’s an emergency, he can, of course, be back in less than an hour.”

“Where is Iron Man?” Captain Rogers asked.

“His mother is in a hospice in upstate New York,” Tony replied, “she has a rare form of cancer that cannot be treated. I’ve given him leave to visit her in the evenings; he flies up in the armor and spends the night at a cabin my father owned.”

“I’ll be back up later,” Steven told Robin as he eased away from the Avengers, “don’t worry if they finish off the stew, I’ll grab something to eat later.”

“If you’re sure,” Robin said hesitantly.

“Just, put the kettle on at nineteen hundred, ok? I’ll be back up by a quarter after.”

“All right,” Robin said, “be careful Puck. You know I worry about you.”

Steven smiled at his twin, “I’ll be fine, Robin. I’m probably going to spend the night looking over applications from the VA and planning the memorial on Saturday. Don’t worry about a thing.”

“Is everything all right, Mister Goodfellow?” Natasha Romanoff asked as she approached.

Steven hesitated, then nodded, “Just fine. I need to be available down stairs for a few more hours. It’s standard routine. I’m putting together a general information file for you to look over so that you understand the security around here. Until that’s complete, I have told the men to maintain a professional and polite demeanor towards all of the Avengers.”

“Professional and polite?” Natasha asked, crossing her arms.

“Yes, Agent Romanoff,” Steven said, “polite means they’ll introduce themselves if they run into you around the Tower. Professional means that if they’re wearing body armor and you’re not, they’ll stand between you and the machine gun bullets long enough for you to get your gun out and fight back.”

“Do you expect everyone in the tower to fight back?” Clint asked as he drifted over.

“No, Agent Barton,” Steven said, “but considering that you both have displayed considerable weapons skill as well as hand to hand, and you’re considered superheroes, we agreed that it might be rude to pretend you couldn’t defend yourself, or wouldn’t choose to assist if the Tower were assaulted. Again.”

“Again?” Natasha said.

“Loki’s people didn’t waltz in here and take over the arc reactor Agent Romanoff,” Steven snapped, “my people fought. Less than half of my people are able to work right now, between the dead and the wounded. They did their job. If Loki hadn’t shown up when he did with that damn scepter, my people could have held the arc reactor and the upper floors until the Avengers got here. But Loki got here first, and my people couldn’t stand against the magic like they did the machine guns. They aren’t assassins or super soldiers or cyborgs, Agent Romanoff, they were soldiers. Some of them were medically discharged because of some IED or terrorist, and some of them left for other reasons and couldn’t find work anywhere else. But they were all soldiers, and they came here because I needed people to defend this Tower, and they died. If the Tower comes under attack again in ten minutes, my people will fight. Help or not, that’s your choice. We already made ours.”

Steven turned and cut through the kitchen to get to the elevator, ignoring the outburst of conversation left in his wake. As he turned to hit the button for the basement, he thought he saw Captain Rogers out of the corner of his eye, but Steven turned his head away. It wasn’t like he could explain to them how ashamed he felt, knowing his people had fought to the death _and he hadn’t been there to die as one of them._

**Author's Note:**

> Steven is referencing Iron Man as a cyborg... probably isn't entirely accurate but Steven likes to pretend he isn't as smart as he actually is. Also, Steven has a lot of angst.


End file.
